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ERIC CONOVER / times-shamrock
U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-Hazleton, would vote for a Democrat-backed bill to jumpstart the government, his spokesman said Wednesday.

If it means restarting the shuttered government, U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta would break with the vast majority of his Republican colleagues and vote for a Democrat-backed bill that separates federal funding from his party's effort to delay full implementation of the Affordable Care Act, his spokesman said Wednesday.

Under that scenario, the Republican effort to eliminate funding for the act - a massive reform of health insurance coverage dubbed Obamacare by its supporters and detractors - would be pushed back two weeks to the looming fight over the federal debt limit, the spokesman, Tim Murtaugh, said.

"The Congressman has said from the very beginning if it came to the floor of the House he would vote for a clean (continuing resolution)," Murtaugh said, using the term for the no-strings-attached funding legislation. "He has never supported closing the government down and he believes that the best venue to fight over Obamacare is the debate over the debt ceiling."

The Barletta-backed plan gained little traction among the 233-member Republican caucus Wednesday, a day after a half-dozen Democrats took turns on the floor of the House imploring their colleagues to support the continuing resolution. The Washington Post counted the second-term Representative from Hazleton among just 18 Republicans supporting the resolution, including four others from Pennsylvania.

The Democrat-controlled Senate passed a version of the measure last week while the Republican-controlled House approved bills that funded the government while also stripping support of Obamacare. Barletta voted with his Republican colleagues three times on those measures, but the Senate quickly rejected each.

After voicing his support for the continuing resolution in a short appearance on the House floor Tuesday, Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Moosic, said the Republican leadership was unlikely to entertain the measure.

"It's not gonna happen," Cartwright said. "This is a House where the Republicans are in charge. Nothing happens unless the Republican majority wants it to happen. That's why this shutdown happened. If we really had enough votes among the Democrats to stop the government shutdown, the government would not have shut down."

Murtaugh said Barletta went along with the Republican "game plan" because of his strong opposition to the Obamacare legislation. Barletta campaigned in 2010 and 2012 against the measure and has supported repeated to defeat it. Faced with a lingering stalemate over the shutdown, however, Murtaugh said Barletta feels the debt ceiling debate is a "more natural place" to discuss altering or eliminating Obamacare.

"When you're having policy disagreements historically the debt ceiling debate is where you would discuss that," Murtaugh said, citing compromises on spending cuts that have been achieved during past debt-limit negotiations.

Leveraging Obamacare against the debt ceiling could lead to a similar stalemate as the budget fight and even more perilous economic consequences, if Republicans refuse to raise the limit and Democrats refuse to compromise on a delay. Barletta favors raising the debt ceiling to avoid a default ("The nation's word and credit have to mean something," Murtaugh said), but also major reductions in federal spending.

"His view is that the country has to pay its bills," Murtaugh said. "This is a country that spends $1 trillion more a year than it takes in. Something has to be done to address the spending."

Barletta considers the push to delay the implementation Tuesday of the Obamacare provision requiring all Americans to have health insurance "an issue of fairness" after President Barack Obama granted delays for businesses and waivers for unions and other groups, Murtaugh said.

"America is not the sort of place where the president gets to pick and choose who follows the law and who doesn't," Murtaugh said. "If a delay is good enough for businesses and unions, it should be good for all Americans."

msisak@citizensvoice.com 570-821-2061, @cvmikesisak

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